This invention is a method for machining, configuring and using woodworking tools to produce wood furniture capable of being joined with nickels (U.S. 5¢ coin) as fasteners (as plates, or plate biscuits). The herein-disclosed method lies within the umbrella of plate joinery, as do the joints and furniture manufactured via the herein-disclosed method.
The market for the instant method (and for furniture so assembled) is universal; manufacturers save money on assembly kits comprising plates, and customers may assemble & disassemble furniture without keeping track of biscuits. The enclosed method allows for furniture assembly without cam fasteners, bolts or screws.
Historically, joining wood parts/panels is often accomplished via cam bolts and pins. “Mortise and tenon” joints are also used, as are glue (via clamping) or standard biscuit joiner methods. “Edge to face” jointing, aka shelf/housing jointing, is often accomplished via biscuit joinery, but biscuit joinery usually requires screws in conjunction with biscuits (internal plates inserted into slots) for stronger fastening. Often the plates/biscuits are dipped in glue before being inserted, or their moisture is predetermined to cause internal expansion (customarily enlarge upon pre-wetting).
Customarily, a “biscuit joiner” [dedicated woodworking tool] is used to mill the slots for such plates, and said power tool is often fitted with a fence-attachment to keep the tool flush as it cuts. This tool is limiting, however, as the biscuits will usually be accessible only from the edge as “wedge-in” pieces, and the jointer only allows certain specified size/shape biscuits. In addition, unlike the present invention, biscuit slots milled by a biscuit joiner are usually wholly-concealed once assembled (once the biscuits are inserted into their slot mouth and the wood panels are then pressed together).
Traditionally, to mill slots for biscuits, a 2 mm (e.g.) biscuit joint slot cutter is used (customarily with a ¼″ to 2″ shank/shaft/neck). A router bit is used in such circumstances, chucked and positioned so it moves through a groove in the wood to mill an internal slot. Radial guide bearings allow precise depth stop.
Even when such a router is used with this pre-fabricated bit, the resulting assembly methods leave the biscuit hidden (jammed-in, once-assembled), requiring the furniture owner to permanently “pull apart” the wood pieces/panels in order to disassemble the furniture. Such disassembly is particularly difficult, as the biscuits are usually comprised of wood, and so expand to become inaccessible, or the biscuits pulverize upon removal.
Furniture owners therefore need a better method, on in which they can easily access the biscuits to pull them out to disassemble the wood furniture. Furthermore, both furniture sellers and consumers would prefer to use a “makeshift biscuit,” a common item they already possess (something they need not keep track of).
Nickels (the common U.S. coin) make ideal makeshift biscuits, as coins are uncommonly durable, waterproof, non-expanding, non-conductive, and guaranteed to remain the mere price of a nickel.
Therefore, what is needed is a System (a specially tailored slot cutter used in a special way) that allows common nickels to function as fasteners to assemble wood furniture.